Dell is still the king of the hill, but for how long? Its growth rate is now …

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IDC has released its first quarter PC market share figures, and for the first time in recent memory, it's not smooth sailing for Dell.

Overall, it was a good quarter. PC shipments rose 12.9 percent from the same quarter in 2005, with the growth occurring worldwide. The big winners for the quarter were HP and Gateway. HP's gains are to be expected, given that it has been battling Dell for the number one market share position for the last several years. Gateway is a bigger surprise.

Known primarily for its spotted boxes and failed Gateway Country retail chain, the company has seen a resurgence as of late. Its decision to buy eMachines has been justified by its increasing share of the low-cost consumer PC market. In addition, Gateway has done unexpectedly well in the public sector, which is usually very price conscious (aside from the occasional US$800 toilet seat at the Pentagon).

Dell, on the hand, did not fare as well. The company is still growing, to be sure, but not as fast as the overall market. During the first quarter, Dell's worldwide shipments grew by 10.2 percent. That was still enough to keep the company in first place with 18.1 percent of the overall market. Perhaps most alarmingly for Dell, US growth for the quarter dropped under 1 percent. At least the company's increased focus on Asia and other non North American markets is paying off, as its international shipments grew to 23 percent vs. the overall market figure of 16 percent.

Lenovo continues to perform well in its Asian stronghold, with that region accounting for over half of its shipments. In the US, the company is still gaining traction as it slowly digests the IBM brand and tries to become a household name. Its first quarter performance was good enough for the number six slot in the US market, and number three worldwide.

According to IDC, Apple accounted for 2.09 percent of worldwide shipments last quarter, up from 2.03 percent the previous quarter. In the US, the company's growth slowed year over year, as it saw a 3.1 percent tick in unit shipments, behind the US overall figure of 5.3 percent. Despite that, it was still a good quarter for the Mac maker, as it announced better-than-expected results yesterday.

Lurking in the background of the results is Intel. Both Dell and Apple have hitched their wagons to the CPU maker and are feeling the results of their strategic moves. For Apple, it comes in the form of a wholesale architecture transition from PPC to x86. During the first quarter, the company introduced new Intel-based iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac minis. Only the iMac was shipping in any sort of volume during the quarter as Intel worked to ramp up production of the new Core Duo and Core Solo CPUs used in Apple's new product lineup.

Dell is a slightly different matter. It has remained steadily in Intel's camp for years, alone among the major PC manufacturers in refusing to offer systems powered by Intel rival AMD. When clockspeed was all that mattered and the Pentium 4 was closing in on 3GHz, it was all good. Over the past couple of years, however, Intel has taken a back seat to AMD when it comes to CPU performance, especially in the 64-bit computing market. That has arguably affected Dell's sales.

In addition, AMD CPUs are often less expensive than comparable Intel CPUs. By going with lower-priced AMD processors, Dell's rivals are able to at least partially negate the discounts Intel gives the leading PC maker.

Like everything else, the fortunes of PC makers and CPU makers ebb and flow. Intel is poised for a strong second half with the introduction of its Conroe desktop CPU, while AMD's DDR2-ready Socket AM2 may not be enough to stave off its rival. That could translate into better news for Dell in the quarters ahead, or it could be that HP, Lenovo, and others have figured out how to beat Dell at its own game.